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Paul Hornschemeier and Jay Ryan resume their joint book tour behind their respective new releases All and Sundry and Animals and Objects In and Out of Water with a West Coast leg beginning tonight in L.A. and wrapping up at our blowout Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery 3rd Anniversary party on Saturday. Full list of West Coast dates: Mon., Dec. 7, 6pmGiant Robot2062 Sawtelle Blvd.LOS ANGELES, CA Tues., Dec. 8, 7pmFoundation Editions@NOMAD1993 Blake Ave.LOS ANGELES, CA Wed., Dec. 9, 6-8pmGiant Robot618 Shrader St.SAN FRANCISCO, CA Thurs., Dec. 10, 7pmD. King Gallery2284 Fulton St.BERKELEY, CA Fri., Dec. 11, 6pmGoodfoot Gallery2845 SE StarkPORTLAND,…

Now available for preview and pre-order: the new 3rd volume of our anything-goes, eyeball-poking, laff-inducing, psyche-jolting comics anthology Hotwire Comics, brought to you by editor (and cover artist) Glenn Head. This edition features contributions from two dozen creators including Michael Kupperman, Mary Fleener, R. Sikoryak (with some brand-new "Masterpiece Comics"), Onsmith, Mats!?, Stephane Blanquet and many more! Download an exclusive 15-page PDF excerpt containing a page each from a sampling of contributors right here (16.5 MB). This book is scheduled to be in stock and ready to ship later this month and in stores shortly thereafter (subject to change). View…

In today's New York Times Sunday Book Review, Douglas Wolk turns in some short reviews of recommended comics for the holidays, including: "The blandly didactic sobriety of old educational comics and earnest advertisements… is Michael Kupper­man’s default tone for the deranged, gaspingly funny work collected in Tales Designed to Thrizzle: Volume One. Kupperman has a stiff, deadpan drawing style that suggests the textures of woodcuts, clip-art and old 'Mary Worth' strips; his writing, on the other hand, jumps the rails at every opportunity."  "The artists assembled by Andrei Molotiu for his anthology Abstract Comics push 'cartooning' to its limits: the…

A message from Hans Rickheit: In a desperate effort to raise funds to escape Philadelphia, I am now offering the original pages from my 2001 Xeric-Winning graphic novel, CHLOE for purchase. (I am also using this as an opportunity to try out PayPal.) The pages are listed HERE and are priced accordingly. Each page will be mailed to any area within the U.S.A. in a flat cardboard envelope with no shipping charge. Adorn your home with a unique piece of cartooning perversity, or conceal your newly-obtained treasure in your precious vaults! Frame it or deface it with your own doodles!…

It's your Friday installments of our three weekly webcomics! Giant monster attack! in this week's The House of No by Derek Van Gieson… …inquiring minds want to know in this week's Blecky Yuckerella strip by Johnny Ryan…. …and the veep guest-stars in this week's Barack Hussein Obama strip from Steven Weissman!

Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "Like a Dog compiles several of [Zak Sally's] stories from the last 15 years in one sweet, annotated hardcover. I'm amazed by how the styles vary — one minute Sally can talk about working in a punk-rock T-shirt shop, the next he's going on about Dostoevsky — but most stories are quite compelling and, man, the guy is just so cool. Sally is an intensely personal writer, and I appreciate how much he reveals about himself within these pages. His work can get a little messy sometimes, but I say that's just another reason…

Anders Nilsen provides the cover image for the new issue of Smoke Signal, the free comics newspaper put out by Desert Island, which will debut at the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival this weekend. Get a bigger, readable version of this image at Anders's blog.

Now available for preview and pre-order: the 6th volume of our complete reprinting of Hank Ketcham's unparallelled run on Dennis the Menace, featuring a week-long visit from grandpa and panel after panel of Ketcham's exquisitely funny cartooning. Download an exclusive 30-page PDF excerpt containing a full month of strips right here. Also up for pre-order now: the box set containing the 5th and 6th volumes, and the slipcase by itself for those who have purchased the volumes separately. These items are scheduled to be in stock and ready to ship later this month and in stores (excluding the slipcase by…

Online Commentary & Diversions: • List: For The Barnes & Noble Review, Douglas Wolk picks his 5 "Best Graphic Novels of 2009," including You'll Never Know, Book 1: A Good and Decent Man by C. Tyler ("…indelible, majestically composed images. Compassionate but unsparing…") and Luba by Gilbert Hernandez ("Fiery, wildly raunchy, deliriously complicated, and bubbling over with life") • Gift Guide: At Comic Book Resources, Steven Grant's holiday recommendations are Fantagraphics-heavy, heaping praise on West Coast Blues, Strange Suspense: The Steve Ditko Archives Vol., Blazing Combat, Locas II, and The Definitive Prince Valiant Companion: "Don't mean to be a shill…

…this time in Norway, under the translated title Værverk, from our good friends at Jippi Forlag. North Americans can secure one of twenty "scalped" signed and sketched-in copies direct from Mr. Woodring, and/or wait for the Fantagraphics edition this coming Spring.